Family faces agonising wait after driver killed in fireball

Andrew Korner
Journalist
Andrew was born and bred in Ipswich and has been at the QT since 2007. After starting out on the country rounds, he moved onto court reporting and then police and emergency services, which he has now been covering for the last three years. When he is not working on police rounds Andrew is busy sifting through the garbage of famous people, in search of ideas for his weekly column, the Naughty Korner. As there are very few famous people in Ipswich, Andrew is often forced to write his column about...

THE FAMILY of a woman believed to have been killed in a horrific car accident faces an agonising wait for confirmation of the victim's identity.

Scientific tests will have to be conducted before police can be certain that the registered owner of the Toyota Prado that crashed and burned at Riverview yesterday was in the vehicle at the time.

Riverview residents described being awoken by a huge bang before looking outside to see a car engulfed in a fire ball.

Bystanders were unable to assist the driver, with live powerlines being brought down in the crash.

Police said the four-wheel-drive was travelling Brisbane-bound on Brisbane Rd, when it crossed onto the wrong side of the road and smashed into a power pole - snapping it off at the base - about 5.25am.

Fiery crash at Riverview:
A car caught fire when it ran into a power pole on Brisbane Road in Riverview early this morning.

A man that lives nearby said he heard loud revving shortly before the sound of the impact.

"We jumped out of bed," the resident, who asked not to be named, said.

"By the time we looked outside the car was already well alight.

"There was no way anyone could get near the car."

The service road adjacent to the Ipswich Motorway was closed for several hours as the forensic crash unit commenced investigations.

Police said post mortem results could take several days to arrive.

Riverview residents described being awoken by a huge bang before looking outside to see a car engulfed in a fire ball.